ZANG CLOUD USE CASES

Here's just a sampling of how developers are using Zang Cloud across every organization size and every industry.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

HOW IT WORKS:
IVR acts a gatekeeper, filtering and categorizing customer needs based on their menu selections. Customers are directed to the correct unit and individual customer service representative specifically specialized, trained and experienced enough to handle those concerns. IVR is designed to handle call volumes of any size so you can process concurrent calls, contributing to process optimization.

CUSTOMER NOTIFICATIONS BY SMS MESSAGE

HOW IT WORKS:
Enabling your app with SMS can transform how customers and partners interact with you across all aspects of the business. Customers and prospects overwhelmingly prefer texting to calls, so why not make it easy for people to connect with you via text messaging?.

"Over half of respondents (52 percent) said they would be likely to text with a customer support agent. Similarly, 52 percent would prefer texting customer support more than their current preferred method of communication." — HeyWire Business Survey

“A lot of messages go into each conversation, so costs can add up,” Eli Lipstein, head of product at OwnerListens, says, “But with Zang we’re saving thousands [of dollars] per month. Zang is helping us keep costs to a minimum.”

First, purchase an SMS-enabled phone number. (Once you're signed up for Zang Cloud, you can purchase a Zang number. Find out more on pricing here.) Then, create a new InboundXML document with the following content:

<Response>
<Sms>Welcome to Zang Cloud!</Sms>
</Response>

The same InboundXML URL needs to be attached to the Zang phone number SMS URL.

Once that’s set up, the same InboundXML URL needs to be assigned to the phone number SMS URL.

3. Registering for an Event

a. An InboundXML document needs to be assigned to a voice URL of a SMS-enabled Zang number:

<Response>
<Gather action="keynote_ivr_example.php" numDigits="1" finishOnKey="#" timeout="10">
<Say>
Thank you for your interest in our Keynote event.
Press 1 if you would like to attend.
Press 2 if you will not be attending.
Press 3 if you would like more Keynote information.
</Say>
</Gather>
</Response>

Then, change the redirect (back-to-main-gather-ivr-document.xml) to the first InboundXML document URL.

CALL RECORDING & CALL TRANSCRIPTIONS

HOW IT WORKS:
Having the ability to record conversations and have a transcribed version of the conversation can be invaluable to many people in many scenarios, including customer support, client meetings, on-the-record journalists and others.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLE:
TelTech is a telecom-focused tech company that creates inventive Web and mobile communication apps. When developing TapeACall, the Zang Cloud platform enabled the team at TelTech to get the product to market much faster than originally anticipated, saving five to seven months of developer time.

The team was also thrilled to develop a great working relationship with the people at Zang, and now considers them partners.

"At Zang, we have relationships with people who understand our specific needs,” says TelTech’s Ethan Garr, vice president of products. “Where it makes sense for us to adapt to a Zang tool we will, but when Zang can adapt the tool to us, that’s when we get the kind of personalized attention that we need.”

Developers at Zang continually work with the TelTech team to determine the best ways to use Zang tools in their apps, and, in some cases, Zang adjusts its tools to fit TelTech’s needs.

First, purchase a new Zang number (Once you're signed up for Zang Cloud, you can purchase a Zang number. Find out more on pricing here.) Then create a new InboundXML document and assign the following as document content:

Once you've created the XML document and assigned it to the number voice URL, you can open up the transcription callback URL and keep it open. Once that number is called into, simply record the message and you'll get a callback with the transcription results in the same URL.

Use this demo number to try it out! +1 331-204-1246

PHONE CONFERENCING

HOW IT WORKS:
Simply connecting two or more people (but usually many more across different geographies and time zones), phone conferencing is crucial for sales presentations, status meetings and other group conversations.

3. Assign this newly created document to a purchased phone number voice URL

4. Call the Zang number

5. Tell your contact to call that same number

6. You can now talk to each other

Custom Caller ID

HOW IT WORKS:
This is also known as "spoofing," or the ability to call a number while masking your caller ID and replacing it with a custom number of your choosing. This is usually done to protect the privacy of your personal number when you're answering business or support calls from your personal cell phone or home phone. You can also use spoofing to make it appear that you're in the office when you're on the road or working from home.

2. Purchase a Zang phone number (Once you're signed up for Zang Cloud, you can purchase a Zang number. Find out more on pricing here.) This number needs to be used as php action $zang_number.

3. Create a web form action.php and serve it to be accessible publicly. You can use ngrok for testing purposes from your development machine. Make sure to modify missing variables within your action example.

4. Open up your form, and type in all the information requested. You're ready to mask your numbers.

Click-To-Call

HOW IT WORKS:
This is an easy way to click or tap a button to have it place a call to another person, connecting two people in a conference. It's particularly useful in customer support when you need to quickly call in to continue the conversation.

For example, if a customer has submitted a ticket indicating they would like to receive a response, a support rep can place a click-to-call instead of manually dialing a number to save time and effort. It's the same process for placing internal calls using a directory list.

You can define the two numbers to be dialed beforehand (like the code example to the right), or you can make it dynamic and have the system check the number of your account so it can be applicable to multiple app users.

CODE EXAMPLE:1. Start with a web form with just one button and a form that will trigger an action.

2. Purchase a Zang phone number (Once you're signed up for Zang Cloud, you can purchase a Zang number. Find out more on pricing here.) The same number will be used as the php action $zang_number. Its sole purpose is to help establish parties.